Libya's rebels issued a Saturday ultimatum for Moammar Gadhafi's forces to surrender or face a military onslaught, as NATO said the strongman is still able to command his troops despite being on the run.

National Transitional Council (NTC) chief Mustafa Abdul Jalil told reporters in the rebel stronghold Benghazi Tuesday that the respite was offered to mark the three-day Eid al-Fitr Muslim feast which follows the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Moammar Gadhafi's daughter Aisha, who fled to Algeria with other family members on Monday, has given birth to a baby daughter, an Algerian government official announced Tuesday.

"Aisha gave birth very early this morning. She had a little girl. Mother and daughter are doing fine," said the official.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime on Tuesday to stop its violent crackdown on protesters and release those arrested.

Ashton "expresses her continued deep concern about the violence perpetrated by the Syrian regime against peaceful demonstrators, human rights activists, and the Syrian people at large," her spokesman said in a statement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has invited the head of the Libyan rebels' National Transitional Council (NTC) to visit Tehran, a foreign ministry statement said on Tuesday.

"In a phone conversation (Monday night) with the NTC head, Salehi congratulated the victory of the Muslim people of Libya and stressed (the desire) to deepen bilateral ties," said the statement, a copy of which was received by Agence France Presse.

Syrian security forces opened fire Tuesday, killing seven people as they tried to disperse thousands of protesters rallying against the regime on the first day of the three-day Muslim holiday that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, activists said.

The activists said security forces fired at protesters in the southern province of Daraa, in the central city of Homs and in the Damascus suburbs following morning prayers marking Eid al-Fitr.

Moammar Gadhafi's youngest son, Khamis, has been killed in a clash with rebel fighters in southern Libya, Al-Arabiya television quoted the rebels as saying on Monday.

Meanwhile, Gadhafi's wife and three children fled to Algeria on Monday as rebels closed in on his hometown of Sirte and said the strongman still posed a danger to Libya and the world.

The European Union reached an agreement in principle Monday to ban oil imports from Syria to punish the regime for its violent crackdown on protesters, diplomats said.

"There is a political consensus on a European embargo of imports of Syrian petroleum products," a diplomat told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

A senior Russian envoy said after talks in Damascus on Monday that there was no change in Russian policy on Syria which has been opposed to Western calls for sanctions, Syrian state media said.

"Russia's position on Syria is unchanged," the official SANA news agency quoted deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying.

Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci has held talks with senior Libyan rebel figure Mahmud Jibril on the sidelines of an Arab League meeting in Cairo, an Algerian government spokesman said Monday.

"Mr. Medelci met with Mahmud Jibril on the sidelines of the Arab League meeting in Cairo which has just taken place," foreign ministry spokesman Amar Belani said in a statement, adding that the meeting had been initiated by Jibril who is the number two in the rebels' National Transitional Council.

Libyan rebels prepared Monday to launch an assault to capture strongman Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte and win full control of Libya, while scrambling to get war-ravaged Tripoli back on its feet.

Sirte is the elusive Gadhafi's last bastion after rebels smashed his forces in Tripoli and seized his Bab al-Aziziya headquarters.